


Pulled Toward the Light

by mrsfrisby



Category: star wars the last jedi
Genre: F/M, Friendship and romance, Immediately following TLJ, Or Rey for that matter?, Overcoming insecurities, Rey deserves better than Kylo Ren, SPOILERS for TLJ, She deserves one hell of a pilot, Slow Burn, who wouldn't fall for Poe Dameron?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-31
Updated: 2017-12-31
Packaged: 2019-02-24 09:39:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13211067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mrsfrisby/pseuds/mrsfrisby
Summary: When Rey finally meets Poe, he's not what she expects. He's kind, he's courageous...he's beautiful. But as they move closer and closer into each other's orbits, she's not sure she can let him--or anyone--get access to the heart that Ben Solo already damaged so badly.





	Pulled Toward the Light

“I’m Poe.”

She glances up, her clouded mind focusing on just his voice at first. Then she takes a good look at him. Dark hair that waves over his forehead. Deeply creased eyes that hint of a man who smiles often enough to etch the lines of it on his face. She’s heard his name a hundred times from BB-8 and Finn, but somehow is not expecting the name to belong to the man standing before her.

“I’m Rey.”

“I know.”

Then he smiles.

Despite everything she’s just been through, a tiny thrill runs over her. It’s absurd. Unwanted, even. Yet still, she smiles back at him.

For a moment, that’s all she can think of doing. In fact, she realizes it’s all he’s doing as well. Their eyes lock, their smiles falter into something almost shy. Rey wants to think of something clever to say (or really anything at all to say), but her mind feels cloudy again.

Poe Dameron, best pilot in the Resistance, friend of Finn, and owner of her favorite astromech, is beautiful.

“Out of my way, Dameron,” says a voice behind him. “I need to speak with Rey.”

When he still doesn’t move, Leia slowly nudges him aside and walks with her cane over to Rey. Without a single glance in Poe’s direction, Leia says, “Dismissed, Captain. I have things I need to discuss with her.”

Poe shakes his head slightly, his curls moving against his forehead. “Of course,” he says to Leia. Then he turns back to Rey. “I’ll see you later.”

All Rey can do was nod her head vigorously as Poe steps backwards. He trips over his own feet and then grins at her in the most disarming possible way.

Leia rolls her eyes at him and then puts her hand on Rey’s hand. “Now, where were we?” she asks.

* * * * 

Long ago, it seemed, Rey had assumed that she and Finn would be inseparable when she returned. Or if they weren’t, it would be because he was with Poe Dameron all the time. 

But it turns out that Finn is with the still-recovering Rose all the time instead. She watches them sometimes, talking quietly in the main hangar of the new Resistance base (if you could call the ruins of yet another old Rebellion base “new”). They're so comfortable together. They laugh so easily. And sometimes, just for a moment, their eyes meet as if they both know, even if they don’t both admit, that everything they want in the universe is right in front of them.

Rey envies that. Not just because a part of her thought she might have that one day with Finn, but because the one person she ever has had that kind of connection with is now barred from her forever.

Ben.

He’s so often on her mind though no one, not even Finn or Leia, knows how much. The ache his desertion has left in her chest is palpable. In quiet moments, when she’s all alone, it’s unbearable. 

And she feels alone so much of the time. 

It didn’t have to be this way. He’d wanted to stay with her. She knew that. But she could never turn to the Dark Side, and it seemed that he will never return to the Light. Neither of them had to be alone anymore, but they were.

With a quick glance at Finn and Rose, Rey finally smiles. She’s glad that her friend has found this kind of bond, even though she knows it will never be something she can have.

* * * *  
“Hi.”

The voice, so close behind her as she sits in the pilot’s seat of the Falcon, startles Rey. She turns abruptly to find Rose Tico standing before her.

“Hi,” she says in return.

Worry and awkwardness nearly radiate off Rose. “Um, can I sit for a minute?” she asks.

“Of course.” Rey gestures to the Chewie’s seat and Rose falls back into it with a sigh. 

“Sometimes it’s still hard to believe that I’m not still working behind a bunch of pipes, you know?” Rose says. 

Rey smiles despite herself. “I used to be a scavenger on Jakku,” she tells Rose. “So I understand how you feel.” She runs her fingers over the controls in front of her. “Life can change so quickly.”

There’s a shift in Rose, and the young mechanic clutches at a large pendant around her neck. This time it’s a deeply rooted sorrow that radiates off Rose.

“I heard that you lost your sister,” Rey says. “I’m so sorry.”

Rose nods and drops the pendant. “And you lost Luke Skywalker,” she says. “And Han. War brings so much tragedy, even when you’re fighting for what’s right.”

“Maybe especially when you are,” Rey replies, thinking of Ben. He was so cold, so convinced of what he was doing, even if it meant the destruction of people or whole planets. He didn’t care, in the end, what tragedies he caused.

“I think you’re right,” Rose says with a quiet smile. Then she gently squared her shoulders. “Anyway, that’s not why I came to talk to you.”

“Then what is it?” Rey is genuinely curious. She likes this open, honest mechanic but she worries there’s a barrier between them.

As if Rose could read her mind, she says, “It’s about Finn.”

“Finn?” Rey asks.

“I know you two are good…friends,” Rose says hopefully. “And I just wondered if there’s something…more…than that between you?”

Rey almost laughs out loud. This, at least, is something she can deal with. “Rose,” she says. “There’s nothing more than that between us.”

“Really?” Rose asks, her voice almost a squeak.

“Really,” Rey replies. “I think it’s pretty clear, actually, that there’s something between the two of you.”

A blush spreads across Rose’s cheeks. “And that’s okay with you?”

It’s a moment to choose her words carefully. Because if Rey is being completely honest, she isn’t sure she’s completely okay with it. That doesn’t mean, though, that she’d change the situation at all.

“I want Finn to be happy,” Rey tells her. “He deserves to be happy.”

Rose’s whole face broke into a happy smile. “I want that, too,” she says, as if she’s confiding a deep, dark secret.

“And I want us to be friends,” Rey continues.  
“Does that mean you’ll show me the new lightsaber you’re building?” Rose asks eagerly.

“You want to see it?”

“Um, yes!” Rose replies. “I love to see how stuff works. And a lightsaber! I mean, wow.”

‘Then come with me,” Rey says. “The mechanics of it are more complex than a normal piece of machinery because of the whole kyber crystal thing, but it’s still fascinating.”

At this point, Rose is practically shining with anticipation. “I love that you’re into the mechanics of stuff, too,” she blurts out. “This is going to be amazing!”

Rey looks at her closely for a moment. Rose is enthusiastic and entirely on the level. She’d heard Leia that Rose is also one of the top mechanics in the Resistance, and that she’d saved Finn’s life on Crait. So Rey really does want them to be friends.

“I think it’s going to be amazing, too,” she assures Rose.

* * * *

Over time, Rey finds herself adjusting to life with the small band of remaining Resistance fighters. It isn’t exactly a huge crowd, but still it takes some getting used to for someone who’d been entirely alone for so long. And if there are odd times when Ben tries to push his way back into her thoughts, she manages to push him right back out again.

This is painful for her, but she does it. Ben Solo had a place in her heart and in her life. Kylo Ren most certainly does not.

It’s at one of the moments when she’s shoving him back out of her life that Poe finds her. She’s sitting in the tall grass that grows outside the base, alone as she so often is.

“You okay?” he asks. 

Sometimes he is as earnest as Rose and Finn are, but at other times his eyes sparkle with humor. Today, he is earnest. He’s worried about her. Of all the things in the galaxy, he’s worried about her.

She could lie to him so easily and if she threw the Force behind her words, he’d even believe her. But she doesn’t want to lie to this fellow pilot. It feels too much like leaning toward the Dark Side, even it would also be protecting her heart.  
But maybe telling the truth can be a form of protecting your heart, too?

“Not really,” she admits to Poe.

Without another word, he sits down next to her. Rey doesn’t want the nearness of him to make her stomach turn in knots, but it does. He’s courageous and charismatic and beautiful to look at. She’s never known anyone like him.

“It is because of Finn and Rose?” he asks. “Did you…were you expecting that when you got back you and he would….?”

He leaves the question hanging in the air, and so does she for a second. “No,” she says at last. “I mean, at first it was hard to figure out. But Finn’s my friend. And Rose makes him so happy.”

“Rose is pretty incredible,” Poe agrees. “But that doesn’t make the whole situation any easier for you if you’d wanted something different.”

With a quick glance at him, Rey is momentarily amazed by more than just his good looks. He’s thoughtful and observant. He knew something was awry with her, when even Finn hadn’t. 

“I had wondered what would happen between us when I first came back,” she admits. “If anything would. But I think…I think I mostly wanted that because Finn was the only person I knew except for….”

“Except for who?”

She has to get herself under control. She has to find a way to talk to Poe about herself without having to lie. “Finn is so Light and I’ve been dealing with a lot of Darkness,” she tells him, not mentioning Ben by name. “But I figured out pretty quickly that his Light and mine don’t necessarily belong together.”

Poe nods. “I had to come to a similar conclusion about him,” he says. 

Her head jerks to look at him again. “You did?” she asks. “I mean, you were interested in him…like that?”

He just smiles at her. “I was,” he says. “There’s no way around it.”

This adds a whole new layer to Poe’s relationship to Finn. And to her relationship with Poe. Not that they have a relationship. Because they don’t. And apparently they’re not going to.

“So what happened?” she asks him. 

His shoulders pull up in a shrug. “Finn was never interested,” Poe tells her. “So, I moved on. It’s not like I was madly in love with him or anything.”

“But you did like him?”

“Yeah, I did,” he says. “Past tense.” He smiles at her again, his eyes creasing in the most intriguing way. 

Rey looks away.

So, you’re interested in men, she thinks. But apparently she thinks it out loud. Or maybe she just sent the thought directly to him using the Force?

“Yeah, I am,” he says. “But I’m interested in women, too. It really just depends on the person.”

“Oh,” Rey says. Then comprehension sets in. “Oh!”

The smile he’s been giving her deepens into something else. She feels the pull toward him, but it confuses her. There’s no way that allowing herself to become susceptible to this feeling is a good idea.

It certainly wasn’t the last time.

Before her thoughts can go any further, Poe jumps to his feet. “Come have lunch with me,” he says, holding out his hand to her.

For a moment, she just stares at it. At him. She’s only held the hands of two other people in her entire life, and the last one, well….

But Poe is not Ben. The mere idea that they could be anything alike almost makes her laugh out loud.

Instead she slips her hand into his and lets him pull her to her feet, even though she doesn’t need the help. 

“Lunch you say?” she manages to get out.

“Yeah, there are some delicious ration bars on tap for today,” Poe says with a grin.

“Just like there were yesterday,” Rey adds.

“And there will be tomorrow,” he agrees.

“Well, at least there’s no danger of starving anymore,” she says, thinking she’s just casually continuing the conversation. But Poe’s eyes flash at her, and she realizes she’s said something unusual. Something that other people don’t say. She keeps thinking that she’s finally fitting in, but then keeps getting reminded that she’s an outsider. That her experiences and those of the people around her have a wide chasm between them. That she doesn’t really fit in here.

But the warmth returns to Poe’s eyes, and somehow it makes her feel as if her differences might be okay.

“No danger of that at all,” he agrees in a quiet voice.

She drops his hands abruptly, and they walk back into the base together. 

* * * *

Being a scavenger can come in handy when you’re one of just a handful of people trying to build a new base out of the ruins of an old one. Rey frequently finds herself working side by side with Rose as they rebuild communications devices or try to fix the heating and cooling system on a base where the temperatures rise and drop with alarming speed.

“I can’t believe we got this piece of junk running again!” Rose says. 

“Neither can I,” Rey agrees. “But at least we’ll be able to send a distress signal now if the need ever arises.”

“Not that it’s going to arise,” says a voice behind them. Poe.

“You can think that if you want, flyboy,” Rose says with laugh. “But the rest of us like to be prepared.”

He flips the start-up switch on their latest work-in-progress and lets out a low whistle of admiration for their work. “You two are single-handedly going to get us up and running again,” he tells them.

“It was just a matter of finding the right parts,” Rey replies. 

“Which Rey is the master of,” Rose supplies. “Once she found what we needed, it wasn’t hard for us to get this old thing operational again.”

Poe’s eyes shift to Rey and he smiles at her. He has grease smudged on his nose and over his left eyebrow. It does nothing to diminish how good he looks. “All those years on Jakku are finally paying off, then?” he says to her.

“Something like that,” she replies. But she actually agrees with him. Her life before the Resistance was so different from everyone else’s that it mostly stands to separate her from them. In this one case, though, it’s an asset. 

“So, um, do you think you could bring that Jakku experience over to the old A-wing I’ve been working on?” he asks Rey. “I could use a hand with it.”

Before Rey can even answer, Rose exclaims, “Oh, I’d love to! I’ve never worked on an A-wing before, and I….” It’s at that exact moment that Rose realizes, as Rey has, that Poe’s smile has faltered. 

Rose looks between Poe and Rey and her eyes widen. “I mean, I could help another time if you need it. But right now I have to stay here. Right here. To fix up the communicator. I mean, to fix it even more than we’ve already fixed it. So, you’ll just have to make due with one crack mechanic instead of two. Right, Rey?” 

Rose couldn’t be any more obvious, and Rey couldn’t be any more embarrassed. “Oh, right,” she says. “I can help Poe with his fighter.”

With one last knowing smile, Rose pushes Rey toward Poe and turns back to what she was doing. 

“Shall we?” Poe asks.

“Definitely.” This foolishness had to stop, she realizes. Now. She can’t allow herself to feel this way. To feel anything for anyone. They’re at war, and there are bigger things to think about. Besides, the last time she let someone into her heart, he shattered it. 

That’s not going to happen again. 

She turns to Poe with business in her voice. “What’s going on with your A-wing?” she asks. “Do you need me to help find you some parts?”

“No,” he says, his skin turning a darker shade for a moment. “I just thought it would be fun to work together for a while. Maybe talk a bit?”

“Okay,” she says cautiously.

“Okay,” he says with a shy smile.

They make their way to the old A-wing and she grins up at it. “You’ve already done so much!” she says. “It’s going to be airborne in no time at all.”

“I hope so,” he says. “I learned to fly on an A-wing, so I’m looking forward to going up in her.”

He moves to show her some improvements he made to the engine, but she’s caught by his last remark. “You learned on an A-wing? I know you’re a little older than me, but wouldn’t that be old tech?”

He blushes again when she mentions that he’s older than her, then looks up at the ship. “My mother was an A-wing pilot,” he replies. “In the old Rebellion.”  
Rey’s eyes widen. She hadn’t known this about him. About his family. “Was your father a pilot, too?”

Somehow this strikes Poe as funny, and a huge smile breaks out over his face. She finds herself wanting to touch the creases that form around his eyes as he does. “No, Dad was a Pathfinder,” Poe tells her. “Always liked to stay firmly on the ground, actually. He never could get the hang of flying.”

“So your mother taught you?”

“She did,” Poe says. “She died when I was eight. It didn’t occur to me at the time that she was teaching me to fly at an absurdly young age, but I loved every minute of it. Guess it’s in my blood.” He turns to her. “Just like it’s in yours.”

A strange feeling grips her stomach. He thinks she had a normal family. He thinks she comes from someplace real, like he did. “I don’t think either of my parents were pilots,” she tells him. 

“Did you know them?” Poe asks cautiously.

She shakes her head. “They abandoned me when I was really young.” Rey pauses, because of course that’s not the whole truth. “Actually, abandoned is a little too kind a word to describe what they did. They sold me for drinking money.”

Poe is at her side in two steps and lays his hand very gently on her arm. “I didn’t know that,” he says.

“Almost no one does,” she replies. “I only told you so that you’d understand that I’m…I’m not like you or anyone else here. Flying’s not in my blood. Nothing is.”

His grip on her arm tightens just a little bit. “That just makes your skill all the more impressive,” he says. “You taught yourself.” She looks away from him. “You’re a hell of a pilot, Rey. And you didn’t have someone like my mom there to show you the ropes. Flying may not be in your blood in a genetic way, but that doesn’t mean you didn’t put it there anyway.”

The words Ben once told her echo in her mind. You’re nobody. She believed him at the time. The idea that she was someone to him, and him alone was actually tempting to her for a brief moment.

Now she gazes up at Poe Dameron and smiles at him. “Thanks for that,” she says.

“For what?” he asks, returning her smile.

“For turning something so horrible into something so…good.”

His hand slides up to her shoulder. “You’re the one who did that,” he tells her. “All I did was to see how amazing you are in the sky.” He clears his throat and then keeps speaking in a lower voice this time. “On land, too.”

They’re so close to each other now. She wonders what will happen. Will they lean in? Will she kiss him? Would he even want that? Would she? Suddenly she’s terrified of what might happen between them. 

Poe watches her closely, and whatever he sees on her face makes him turn away from her abruptly. “So do you want to see some more what I’ve been working on?” he asks.

With disappointment and relief both gnawing at her insides, she follows him around the A-wing and listens closely as he describes all the help he never needed from her.

* * * *

Breakfast is more ration bars, but Rey really doesn’t mind. There’s hot caf and Finn sitting across from her, so there’s more to be thankful for than to regret.

“So, you and Rose,” she says. “How are things going?”

A smile creeps across her friend’s face. “Slowly,” he admits. “But I think that will change soon.” He takes a sip of caf. “I hope it’ll change really soon.”

“She cares about you so much,” Rey remarks.

“I know.”

“And you clearly care about her,” Rey continues. “So what are you waiting for?”

A hearty laugh barrels out of Finn. “I could ask you the same question.”

“Me?”

“Yes, you,” he says. Then he sits up as straight as she is in his chair. “So, you and Poe,” he says, echoing her earlier words and even catching the tone of her voice. “How are things going?”

“There’s…nothing’s going,” she tells him. “There’s nothing between us.”

He gives her an incredulous look. “Okay, sure,” Finn replies. “If you say so.”

“Well, I do say so,” she stammers out. “He’s older and one of the Resistance’s leaders and our best pilot,” she says. 

“And good looking and kind and funny and follows you around like a puppy,” Finn adds.

But all he gets in response is a shake of the head. “He’s the shining light of the Resistance,” she says. “He wouldn’t be interested in someone like me.”

With that, Finn drops his ration bar onto the table. “You don’t seriously believe that, do you?”

“Of course I do,” she says, confused.

“Rey, you’re a Jedi for Force sake,” he replies. “You’re one of the best pilots I’ve ever seen. And you’re you.” He grins at her. “Speaking as your oldest friend, just being you is pretty spectacular.”

She chews carefully on a bite of ration bar to avoid having to answer. 

“Did you hear me?” Finn presses.

“Yes,” she replies. “I just don’t know what you want me to say. His parents were Rebellion heroes.” She pauses again and thinks about Ben’s words before she says again, “I’m nobody.”

“This is madness. You’re not nobody. And he likes you!” Finn insists.

“How can you even tell?” she asks, genuinely curious. “He’s so quiet most of the time.”

Finn actually spits out the sip of caf he’d just taken, coughing as he does. “Poe? Quiet?” Then he burst out laughing.

“Yes, he always seems to have a quiet way about him,” she replies.

For a long minute, Finn sits staring at her before saying the most astounding thing she’s ever heard. “I think he’s a little intimidated by you. He’s quiet around you because he likes you so much and because he doesn’t want to say the wrong thing to someone as impressive as you are.”

“Okay, on that note, I’m leaving,” Rey says, standing with her small tray in hand. “The temperature changes on this planet have finally affected your brain.”

“He likes you,” Finn called after her. 

In the distance, a pilot at another table calls out in agreement, “He really does!”

Rey walks to her quarters wishing that she could believe them, but also wishing that they’re dead wrong.

Because she likes Poe, too. And she has no idea what to do about that.

* * * *

There are so many new recruits to train that she doesn’t see much of Poe over the next few days. She watches him, though, from across the mess and from the doorway of the hangar. With the other pilots, the new recruits, he’s gregarious and charming. He’s everything he’s not with her.

It confirms one of her deepest fears: that Ben was right and she’ll never mean anything except to someone like him: a monster, a murderer, who tried to lure her away from the Light.

Poe could never really care about her.

And yet she still can’t shake her feelings for him.

* * * *

There’s a party to celebrate the swelling of their ranks. Music spills out of the hangar and alcohol has appeared from Force knows where. People are laughing, dancing. Finn and Rose are among them, dancing with their bodies pressed a little too closely against each other. She supposes that things are finally going to move more quickly between them after all, and she's happy for them.

Her eyes scan the room, but she won’t admit, even to herself, who she's looking for until she finds him. Poe stands among his fellow pilots, telling some kind of raucous story as they peel with laughter.

“You should go join them,” Leia says, suddenly at her side.

“Oh, no,” Rey says. “I’m not much for parties and small talk.”

Leia smiles. “I have a feeling that Poe would consider talking to you anything but small.”

Rey almost lets out a groan. “Not you, too?” she says.

“I’m not generally one for match-making,” Leia tells her. “But he’s been so obvious that it’s almost embarrassing to watch. And I think that you feel the same way?”

“It’s complicated.”

“Oh, Rey, it always is,” Leia returns. Then she takes both of Rey’s hands in hers. “I know that you were spending time with…my son. That you fought by his side not so long ago. But his mind is….” She squeezes Rey’s hands and looks away. “His mind has been poisoned by the Dark Side. He can’t properly see the Light anymore.”

Rey isn’t sure that’s completely true, but she also isn’t sure what to think anymore. “He said I didn’t matter to anyone in the galaxy except him,” she admits, to his mother of all people.

Leia winces. “Of course he did,” she replies. “But it’s not true. Search your feelings, Rey. You know it’s not true. You mean so much to so many people.” 

Rye looks over at the pilots, only to find Poe watching her with careful eyes.

“You mean so much to him,” Leia continues, nodding her head in Poe’s direction. “Don’t let the poison affect your mind or heart. Poe is flawed and can be too headstrong sometimes. But he’s pure Light.”

With that, Leia lets go of Rey’s hands and goes to sit with Chewie and R2 by one of the newly repaired X-wings. 

Light versus darkness. Flawed versus damaged. 

Open-hearted versus poisoned.

Rey pushes her way through the crowded hangar toward Poe.

He watches her every step, his eyebrows rising as she gets closer.

“Dance with me,” she says, her voice making it unclear whether she’s asking or demanding. But she holds her hand out to him and without a single word, he takes it.

When they get out into the middle of the hangar, though, she has no idea what to do.  
“Is something wrong?” Poe asks.  
“It’s just…I don’t actually know how to dance,” she admits.  
Instead of teasing her, instead of embarrassing her, or shaming her, Poe simply takes one of her hands and puts it on his shoulder as he slips his own around Rey’s waist. Then he reaches over and clasps their remaining hands together. 

“Like this,” Poe says.

All she can do is nod.

So they dance. Poe clearly knows how to do this even if Rey doesn’t, and he leads them both in time with the music. 

She holds her breath as Poe pulls her in a little bit closer. Then she leans in so that they’re touching—her head nestled over Poe’s shoulder, their chests pressed together. Poe wraps his arm further around Rey’s waist.

“I’ve wanted to dance with you all night,” he says in her ear, making her step back a bit.

“Then why didn’t you ask me to?”

One corner of his mouth bends downward. “It’s just that I’m older than you,” he says. “But stupider. Like by lightyears.”

This actually makes Rey laugh. “I don’t believe that.”

“You weren’t here while we were evacuating D’Qar,” he says, no longer looking at her. “I made mistakes. Big, horrible mistakes.”

A lump is gathering in her throat. She wishes she knew how to comfort him, but she has no idea. “We all do, Poe.”

“We all make small ones,” he agrees. “Manageable ones. But lives depended on me and I let everyone down. People died because of me.”

She turns that over in her mind for a second. “Leia just described you as being pure Light,” she tells him. “Whatever happened, whatever mistakes were or weren’t made, she knows that about you. And so do I.”

Poe just shakes his head. “You can only still think that because you’ve never screwed anything up as badly as I have, Rey,” he says in a sad voice.

With one deep breath, Rey readies herself to say what’s been hanging over her since she got back. “I have a Force bond with Kylo Ren,” she blurts out. “Had, I guess. I’ve blocked him out. Not that it matters at this point.”

Poe finally looks up at her. “I’m not sure what that means.”

“It means I could talk to him. I did talk to him, from across the galaxy,” she replies. “Touch him, even.” She swallows down her guilt. “It was complete foolishness on my part. I thought I could turn him back to the Light.” Now it’s her looking away. “I thought he could save us.”

Suddenly, they’re not dancing anymore. “Rey?” Poe says quietly.

She looks up at him again.

“It was you who saved us,” he says. “You found us under the rubble. You got us off Crait. It’s because of you that new recruits are lining up to join us.” Poe cradles her cheek in his hand. “Can you truly not see that?” 

She blinks away tears. “I’m nobody, Poe,” she replies. “You don’t have to make it sound otherwise.”

Then he smiles. The kind of big, broad smile that always makes her want to run her fingers over the crinkles it forms on his face.

“You’re not nobody,” he says. “Not to a single person in this hangar.” He sucks in a breath. “And definitely not to me.”

Leaning her cheek into his palm, she lets her mind run through all that’s happened in just a short period of time. She grew up being treated as if she were worthless, and Ben only confirmed that she was. No one would want her, he told her. No one in the whole galaxy, except for him. But Leia was right. Ben is Darkness. 

No matter what mistakes Poe has made in the past, she knows that Leia is right about him as well. 

Poe is pure Light.

She reaches up to touch his face, the stubble on his cheeks, his chin coarse under her fingertips. 

He smiles again, a bright flash followed quickly by something much more serious. And Rey cannot help herself. She leans in and kisses him. 

“I’ve wanted to do that all night long, too,” he says in an undertone.

“I thought you supposed to be impetuous and daring,” she replies, laughing quietly.

“Hm…” he says, nuzzling into her ear. “Not when it comes to you, I guess.”

They kiss again.

A whoop of a cheer rises up from somewhere behind her, and it takes Rey a moment to realize that it’s Finn who’s cheering. And that his yell is soon followed by that of others. Someone whistles loudly and laughter breaks out.

“About time!” she hears, and she and Poe turn in unison. All around them are members of the Resistance, apparently thrilled to see the two of them together. Leia raises her glass at them from her table in the corner. 

“At least we don’t have to worry about whether or not they all approve,” Poe says with a sly grin. “Not that I was losing sleep over it.”

She laughs, but she also tries to tuck the memory of this moment into her pocket to savor later. The acceptance, the love, that surrounds her is almost overwhelming. For the briefest of moments, she thinks of Ben Solo and how lonely he must be, believing that all the world is against him. She pities him. But she wouldn’t want to be with him.

When Poe smiles at her this time, she runs her fingers over his face, enjoying the feeling of his skin, the lines of his smile.

The Resistance is her family, and now Poe is…well…she didn’t really know what. Hers, she supposed. Poe is now hers. They belong together. And it feels like coming home.

**Author's Note:**

> Rey and Kylo Ren were so compelling in TLJ, but I love her too much not to want something infinitely better for her. Comments and kudos always much more than welcome!


End file.
